Problem networking with multiple routers.

The system we have is as follows: There is one broadband line that goes directly to a router. That router is then connected to a switch and a wireless router. There are five computers that are connected to the first router, and three that connect to the wireless. We then have a network set up for all the computers.

The problem that we are having is that in order for the computers on the wireless router to connect to the network, DHCP has to be disabled on the wireless router. However, if DHCP is disabled on the wireless router then all the computers connected to it periodically lose all connection to the internet. The router then needs to be reset for the computers connected to it to connect to the internet.

The reason we disabled DHCP is that if DHCP is enabled on the wireless router, the computers connected to it do have internet access but have no access to the five other computers on the router connected to the broadband modem.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions given as to how to resolve this issue.

 

The most obvious solution that comes to my mind is to switch off DHCP on the broadband router, and use DHCP on the wireless router for both the wireless network and the wired network.

 

Forgot about this...

In my original post I forgot to say that the reason we had the line going from the modem to the router and then to the wireless router was that the wireless router needed to be closer to where the wireless computers are due to signal strength. So, the modem is in one room and further on is the wireless router, and the reason for the wireless router being further on is that one of the computers connected wirelessly is a desktop.

It's a bit of a mess all around, but we unfortunately can't change much in the setup. Though, we are going to try switching the router and wireless router again to test signal strength, but it's doubtfull that it'll be strong enough.

 

Here is my two cents:

If your wireless router has two or more ethernet port. You may get rid of the router which directly connected to the modem. Only one long cable you need to buy. And it will make your network simple.

 

Simple solutions are indeed the best, and that one would work great if we can get the wireless router to funtion as a primary router.

Sorry about the fact that I keep adding on information about this problem, I wasn't aware of all the details when I first started this post as I'm not the one that set it up. I keep learning new things about the situation as time goes on.

Anyway, back to the current issue: For some reason, our wireless router will not recieve a signal directly from our broadband modem. The wireless is a Linksys Wireless-B BEFW-11S4, and the normal router is a D-Link DI-604. Both have their settings set exactly the same way, but still the wireless will not recieve a signal directly from the modem. The signal has to go through the D-Link router and then to the Linksys in order for the Linksys to work.

Any ideas as to why this might be the case?

 

Which port do you use on Linksys BEFW-11S4 to connect to D-Link DI-604 ?

One of my customer has the same situation with you and it works fine. One difference is he use two Linksys routers whereas you use one Dlink and one Linksys instead.

BTW, Because you only have 8 computers in the network, you could also use the static IP address scheme.

 

The port that we use to link the Linksys to the D-Link is one of the four output ports on the Linksys to the Internet port on the D-Link.

Again though, the problem we're having is that the Linksys isn't getting any signal from the broadband modem if connected directly to it. That's why the D-Link is first, because the Linksys will recieve a signal if it goes through the D-Link router.

 

What is "Internet port" ? There are five ports on DI-604, one is WAN port, the other 4 are LAN port.

Do you mean "Internet port" is WAN port on DI-604 ? If so, which port on DI-604 do you use to connect to the modem ?

Sorry, just a little bit confusion.

 

Oops, sorry about that. Yeah, I meant the WAN port. It's on the Linksys that one of the ports is named "internet ".

When the D-Link is connected directly to the modem we run the cable to the WAN port, and when the Linksys is connected directly to the modem we run it to the Internet port. Sorry for the confusion.

 

That's OK, don't be sorry, I just want make sure the things clearly.

So, here is the picture that I imaged:

One network cable(RJ-45) goes form modem to DI-604's WAN port.

One network cable goes form one of DI-604's LAN port to BEFW-11S4's WAN port.

If I am right. One problem(you have mentioned in your first post) is:

DHCP in DI-604 assigns ip address as 192.168.0.x and DHCP in BEFW-11S4 assigns ip address as 192.168.1.x

That's why computers that connected to BEFW-11S4 can go to internet but can not see computers that connected to DI-604.

And you have said you had disabled DHCP in BEFW-11S4 and the network became unstable. If so, how could your computers which connected to BEFW-11S4 to get their ip addresses ? Did you apply static ip address on those computers ?

If you did not apply the static ip address, have you observed their ip addresses? Are they 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x ?

Anyway, in my experience, it is better that you use one of the LAN port of BEFW-11S4 to connect to one of the LAN port of DI-604 and disable DHCP in BEFW-11S4. Thus, every computer could get ip address like 192.168.0.x.

 

Good advice! Definitely the way to go.

 

Ok, I just now got back to this thread. Too many problems around here at once....anyways, thanks for the advice, I'll try that and post back as to the results.